Orsay

Portrait of the artist

Vincent van Gogh. 1889

We are facing one of the most beautiful and vibrant paintings of Vincent Van Gogh. This is one of the more than 43 self-portraits with which the famous painter shows us the passage of time in him and the evolution of his technique. It is a fortune to be able to observe the artist in its different stages and this is not due to a narcissistic or pretentious desire, but responds to the need to have a model, which was expensive for the number of hours involved. With a mirror, this monetary inconvenience disappeared.
Van Gogh writes to his brother Theo "I deliberately wore a mirror good enough to allow me to work with my image for not having a model, because if I can paint the color of my own head, I do not think that completing it is so difficult, I could paint the heads of other good souls, men and women. "

Van Gogh looks directly at us, intensely, and we can notice certain tiredness marks on his face, but the background seems to reflect the energy and inner fire that Vincent possessed. This self-portrait was made in the last year of his life in Saint-Rémy, seven months after the tragic episode of the cut of his left ear, which we do not see by his posture in front of the mirror.